Ordinance targets city's vicious dogs

WARREN  The city's enforcement efforts against vicious dogs will have some teeth starting next week.

City council passed an ordinance Wednesday that will take effect June 1 and require containment of vicious dogs in a secure enclosure or on a secure leash, together with annual registration of such dogs with the city health department.

Special identification collars, warning placards for their homes and $100,000 liability insurance will be required for such dogs. Owners of dogs that are declared vicious by police or animal control officers may appeal that declaration to the city health board within 10 days.

Definition

A vicious dog is defined as one that has killed or injured a person or killed or seriously hurt another dog or other domestic animal without provocation. The ordinance also defines pit bull dogs or any dogs trained to fight as vicious.

Violation of the new law would be a first degree misdemeanor, with a mandatory $1,000 fine for second offenders.

Mayor Michael O'Brien and Police Chief John Mandopoulos urged swift passage of the ordinance earlier this month after a pit bull dog attacked three members of the same family in one week, hospitalizing one of them, and four generations of that family appeared before council's police and fire committee.

Tax abatement

Also passed was an ordinance authorizing an agreement between the city and Trumbull County commissioners providing for a 75-percent tax abatement on new real property improvements for Leedsworld Inc. The matter will come before the commissioners next week.

Leedsworld, a New Kensington, Pa.-based maker of promotional goods, will decide next month whether to lease a former Delphi Packard Electric plant on North River Road on the edge of Warren Commerce Park, investing $4.4 million and creating more than 240 jobs.

Council also passed resolutions honoring Jessica Dunewood and Markella Paige Whetzel as valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, at Warren G. Harding High School, and Diane Lubert, Treva Pytlik and Brandi Zabel as distinguished teachers in the city schools.

WARREN  The city's enforcement efforts against vicious dogs will have some teeth starting next week.

City council passed an ordinance Wednesday that will take effect June 1 and require containment of vicious dogs in a secure enclosure or on a secure leash, together with annual registration of such dogs with the city health department.

Special identification collars, warning placards for their homes and $100,000 liability insurance will be required for such dogs. Owners of dogs that are declared vicious by police or animal control officers may appeal that declaration to the city health board within 10 days.

Definition

A vicious dog is defined as one that has killed or injured a person or killed or seriously hurt another dog or other domestic animal without provocation. The ordinance also defines pit bull dogs or any dogs trained to fight as vicious.

Violation of the new law would be a first degree misdemeanor, with a mandatory $1,000 fine for second offenders.

Mayor Michael O'Brien and Police Chief John Mandopoulos urged swift passage of the ordinance earlier this month after a pit bull dog attacked three members of the same family in one week, hospitalizing one of them, and four generations of that family appeared before council's police and fire committee.

Tax abatement

Also passed was an ordinance authorizing an agreement between the city and Trumbull County commissioners providing for a 75-percent tax abatement on new real property improvements for Leedsworld Inc. The matter will come before the commissioners next week.

Leedsworld, a New Kensington, Pa.-based maker of promotional goods, will decide next month whether to lease a former Delphi Packard Electric plant on North River Road on the edge of Warren Commerce Park, investing $4.4 million and creating more than 240 jobs.

Council also passed resolutions honoring Jessica Dunewood and Markella Paige Whetzel as valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, at Warren G. Harding High School, and Diane Lubert, Treva Pytlik and Brandi Zabel as distinguished teachers in the city schools.